


I'm Just A Dreamer

by Rosencrantz



Series: Ghost Stories - Fandom [5]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Gen, Recovery, Trainer Pokemon Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-28
Updated: 2015-09-28
Packaged: 2018-04-23 21:17:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4892539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosencrantz/pseuds/Rosencrantz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a pokemon joins you, you've made a commitment. Dawn will fulfill that commitment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Just A Dreamer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [straightforwardly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/straightforwardly/gifts).



> A treat! 
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you to Ann and Hina for betaing this for me.

Dawn didn't sleep anymore.

The nightmares wouldn't let her.

She'd close her eyes and plunge into the Distortion World again, nothing above her, nothing below. And Giratina lurking.. She'd be facing Team Galactic and this time she wouldn't win. She'd watch the world shatter away, her mother's face the last thing she saw.

So she stayed up.

She drank the strongest tea she could brew.

And she promised Darkrai it wasn't its fault.

"I know you're afraid," she said. She reached out to touch Darkrai's 'hand'. "You've been alone for a long time. But I'm going to live up to being the trainer you deserve. We can do this."

Darkrai looked away and floated up to look at the moonless sky.

Empoleon, with exceptional skill, balanced a teacup in her flippers. She held the cup up to her beak. Dawn's other pokemon were as sleepless as her. Empoleon was a good pokemon. A partner any trainer would be proud to have. She didn't feel like the trainer Empoleon deserved. Not if she couldn't control the darkness within their newest team member.

"I'm sorry," said Dawn, her voice soft with guilt. "But... Darkrai's part of our team too. I promised them they wouldn't have to be alone anymore."

Empoleon looked at Dawn from under her trident mask, and went back to drinking tea. She was too tired to 'suggest' again that Darkrai should be set free far away from Dawn and the team.

"The voice we heard. It said something about Fullmoon Island," said Dawn, pouring herself more tea. "What do you think?"

Empoleon yawned.

"We need to try it then."

Hatching a plan was easy. She always had a plan. But all she had to go on were the mutterings of the mysterious voice. Which she admitted to herself was slim at best. She didn't have the luxury of staying anywhere for any length of time. Not with Darkrai's powers in their wild state. Fullmoon Island, that was the failsafe. That's what the voice had said. Implied. It was all she had.

Dawn wasn't a coward. How else had she managed to defeat Cyrus and survive Giratina? But she was so tired now. Her dreams so horrifying. She started to doubt she'd ever heard the voice.

She had to avoid battles now. Her pokemon were lucky if they successfully performed their attacks now. They moved sluggishly and out of sync. Sleep was in the past.

She went home.

Barry had ideas, when she conferred with him. A lot of them. All at once.

Twinleaf Town was the first stop in her tour of the Sinnoh region in search of a cure. But she did not stay the night there, for fear that her nightmare would spread to her mother and neighbours. Once the sun began to set she hugged her mother tightly, bid her farewell, and went off. Once she reached the main road, she took a sharp turn into the woods. There she made her camp.

She let her pokemon out. Empoleon, looking annoyed and tired. Bidoof looking small, fluffy, and slowly tilting on her side from exhaustion. Staraptor in a tree keeping watch for the horrors he saw in his dreams. And Darkrai, floating in the distance like it felt it didn't deserve to be near them.

She pulled Bidoof into a hug and tried to think good thoughts about sleep. She needed it. Maybe she wouldn't dream tonight.

 _What if I don't wake up?_ crossed her mind. She shivered.

"Hey! Dawn!"

She looked up and saw Barry riding up, legs pumping on his bike and holding up a pokeball in his hand triumphantly.

"Dawn! You're going to love this!" He skidded to a stop, just managed to avoid crashing with the bike and ran at her. He bent over to catch his breath, but his arm shot out towards Dawn, clutching a pokeball.

"Um?" said Dawn, voice thick with sleep.

"It's a Drowzee! I had to ask all my friends to find one for you! It eats dreams, Dawn!" He clicked the button and out came an unsettling yellow and brown pokemon with a long snout.

"It's not normal dreams--" began Dawn. She tried to ignore the hope swelling in her chest. If it didn't work, she had another pokemon trapped with her.

"Give it a try!" Barry took her hands and looked into her eyes. "You can't be brave if you're too tired to move, Dawn! Let people help you like you're helping Darkrai and you might actually make it."

Dawn nodded. The Drowzee was doing an odd dance for the other pokemon, as if to say hello.

"You need to go, before it happens to you," she told Barry. She hugged him.

"I know. Take good care of Drowzee, okay? She came from a breeder all the way in Sunyshore City!"

Barry picked up his bike and rode off, waving his arm in a wide arc at Dawn as he went.

She looked at Drowzee. Drowzee looked back.

"Please work," she said.

It did.

The nightmares were still there, but now they pulled away before Dawn could wake up. Darkrai seemed to open up now that the entire team wasn't wasting away. It would play with Bidoof, float around Staraptor as he flew, and even dared to tease Empoleon. Drowzee preferred to stay in the ball except when she'd come out at nights to feast.

In Canalave that Dawn struck gold. A sailor named Eldritch told her he not only knew where Fullmoon Island was: he knew what she _needed_.

And so they set out, her pokemon safely in their balls, Darkrai hidden.

The ride was wonderful. There was a crisp breeze, and the spray felt wonderful against her face. In the air pelippers and wingulls flew, and mantines leapt up from the water as if to say hi.

 _Cresselia_ , thought Dawn, letting the name turn over and over in her mind. A beautiful name. Darkrai had a light opposite. Darkrai was the new moon when all was dark, and she was the full moon when it was bright. Dawn didn't know if she'd see Cresselia, but with luck Cresselia had left a gift to help her and Darkrai.

Her heart hurt, thinking of Darkrai alone on its island, afraid to leave for the effects it had on people. She couldn't have taken it. And she wasn't going to let Darkrai face that loneliness again.

The island came into view. Bright flowers and vibrant trees. It was nothing like the mist-shrouded island she had met Darkrai on.

"Call me if you need me," said Eldritch, sitting to wait.

Dawn nodded and began her hunt. Once out out of sight of sailor Eldritch, she set her pokemon free and told them what to look for. Darkrai clung to her side, like it didn't believe it belonged on the island.

It was cute, something so big trusting her to be the strong one. She had visions of taking on the League with Darkrai. They were going to get past this pain and Darkrai would get to show the world what it could do.

They searched like people (and pokemon) possessed. Hope was near.

Night fell. The full moon rose. Her search had taken her a month, a long time when you were just a kid.

Bidoof, every inch vibrating with helpfulness, brought her everything she wasn't looking for:

  * 2 berries (useful)
  * 1 pokeball (people couldn't seem to keep those in their pockets)
  * Berries
  * 3 interesting (to Bidoof) twigs.
  * Berries



When Bidoof came the seventh time, Dawn sighed. 

"It's very nice, sweetie but--" The glow cut her off. In Bidoof's mouth was... it was a feather more beautiful than any gem she had ever seen. Eyes wide, she reached out to touch it and her body filled with warmth. All the nightmares, the endless nights, washed away with its touch.

"The lunar wing!" she gasped. The other pokemon came running, eager to touch it.

Dawn handed it to them and grabbed Darkrai's 'hands', swinging it around in a dance.

"We found it! It's going to send away the nightmares! You're free, Darkrai! We all are!"

It is an odd thing to hear a Darkrai laugh, but it was the best thing Dawn had heard in a long time. And across the moon flew a beautiful pink and yellow pokemon as if in victory.


End file.
